Reese Fischer, a junior creative writing student at the school who helped organize the protest, said she doesn't oppose the dress code. But, based on her experience, faculty members enforce the dress code more strictly against girls than boys, and against heavy-set girls than smaller girls, she said.

"Especially in the summer, you see guys walking around in muscle tank tops with half their sides hanging out and their pants hanging down, and they don't get called out for that," Fischer said. "They don't get called out for wearing a hat, but a girl will get called out for a short skirt in a second."

...School of the Arts' dress code states that "appropriate, decent and non-distracting attire must be worn" and prohibits hats indoors, exposed underwear, bare skin "between upper chest and mid thigh," shoulder straps less than two fingers wide, and clothing that features inflammatory or profane messages. Students who break the dress code can be sent to an administrator's office and told to change into a school-owned T-shirt and sweatpants.

Hi! As many of you heard, there's a new dress code policy being enforced as of tomorrow that will require students to leave class and sit in the office until their dress code violation is 'dealt with'. Also, for a teacher to send you to the office they do not have to dictate whether or not you're in dress code, [they just have to] simply question it. Many students find it incredibly offensive that their outfits are being held at a higher importance than their education. ...

Tomorrow, Sept. 24, it would be awesome if we could get as many people as possible to incorporate a red 'A' into their outfits, as the red 'A' is a famous symbol for 'sin.' We'll keep this page updated as frequently as possible so that the movement is cohesive and effective. Thank you for standing up for what's fair (that everyone should be treated with equal respect).

Post and Courier said the protest went very well.

Fischer said that on the first day of the protest last Thursday, about 100 students — as well as some faculty — wore a homemade red A on their clothing, sometimes as part of a slogan, "Not A Distraction." The red letter A is a reference to the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel "The Scarlet Letter," in which 17th-century Puritans force a young woman to wear the letter after finding her guilty of adultery.

A week in, and students are still adding the letter to their clothes.

Way to find a civil way to stand up for yourself and get your point across!

A high school student posted this image on her Facebook page in outrage over her schools graduation dress code guidelines directed specifically toward female students. The detail of expectations and focus on shaming of female students into covering their bodies, particularly if they have any weight related imperfections ("sausage rolls") compared to the much more relaxed guidelines directed toward the "gentlemen" is what some people find so upsetting. The school district has made a response to lament the "unfortunate word choices" that were written in the letter drafted by a long since retired author.

A Canadian teen wrote an open letter to her principal after she was given detention for wearing a halter dress that she says school officials told her was "inappropriate and a sexual distraction". The full transcript of her response is below:

“Dear [Vice Principal] Sturgeon,

I have a concern I would like to bring to your attention. In today’s society, a woman’s body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. This unjust mindset towards women is absolutely absurd. The fact that authority figures, especially males, can tell young women they must cover up their shoulders and their backs because it’s “inappropriate” and “a distraction” is very uncomforting. Schools are the social building blocks in an adolescent’s life meant to teach them how to communicate and develop relationships with others and also learning about themselves and who they want to be. It’s preached upon us to be individual, to be ourselves. The double standard here is that when we try, we are then told we’re wrong. We may not truly dress, act or speak how we want because authority figures, and I use that term very loosely such as yourself, tell us we can’t. Yes, I understand there are restrictions to how much and how little of your body that shows, but that applies when people show up in their bikinis or bra and panties. Though I do believe women should legally be allowed to publicly be shirtless considering males are, it’s mindsets like yours that keep that as something that is shamed upon. So no, Mr. Sturgeon, I will not search for something to cover up my back and shoulders because I am not showing them off with the intention to gain positive sexual feedback from the teenage boys in my school. I am especially not showing them to receive any comments, positive or negative, from anybody else besides myself because the only person who can make any sort of judgment on my body and the fabrics I place on it is me.

If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control.